1.
[syn: by no means, not by a long sight, not by a blame sight]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Mean \Mean\, n.
1. That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes
of place, time, or number; the middle point or place;
middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of
extremes or excess; moderation; measure.
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But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is
temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
--Bacon.
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There is a mean in all things. --Dryden.
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The extremes we have mentioned, between which the
wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are
correlatives. --I. Taylor.
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2. (Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between
several others, from which it is derived, and of which it
expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise
specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the
quantities together and dividing by their number, which is
called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the
nth root of the product of the n quantities being
averaged.
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3. That through which, or by the help of which, an end is
attained; something tending to an object desired;
intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or
coagent; instrument.
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Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the
conversion of the heathen to Christ. --Hooker.
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You may be able, by this mean, to review your own
scientific acquirements. --Coleridge.
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Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean. --Sir
W. Hamilton.
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Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the
plural form means, and often with a singular attribute
or predicate, as if a singular noun.
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By this means he had them more at vantage.
--Bacon.
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What other means is left unto us. --Shak.
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4. pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like,
considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an
instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose;
disposable force or substance.
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Your means are very slender, and your waste is
great. --Shak.
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5. (Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between
the soprano and base; a middle part. [Obs.]
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The mean is drowned with your unruly base. --Shak.
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6. Meantime; meanwhile. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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7. A mediator; a go-between. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman.
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He wooeth her by means and by brokage. --Chaucer.
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By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all
means.
By any means, in any way; possibly; at all.
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If by any means I might attain to the resurrection
of the dead. --Phil. iii.
ll.
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By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all;
certainly not; not in any degree.
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The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so
good as that on the other. --Addison.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
by no means
adv 1: definitely not; "the prize is by no means certain"; "and
that isn't all, not by a long sight" [syn: by no means,
not by a long sight, not by a blame sight] [ant: by
all means]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
35 Moby Thesaurus words for "by no means":
God forbid, I refuse, I will not, at no hand, au contraire,
count me out, far from it, impossible, in no case, in no respect,
in no wise, include me out, never, no, no matter what, nohow,
not a bit, not a jot, not a speck, not a whit, not an iota,
not at all, not likely, not much, not nearly, nothing doing, noway,
noways, nowhere near, nowise, on no account, on no condition,
quite the contrary, to the contrary, under no circumstances